“You can deliver the best test on earth, and the system will turn it into complete nonsense in three years,” a German doping expert told the Play the Game conference this evening.

The fight against drugs in sport is being severely hampered by a lack of willpower on the part of sport organisations and national governments, veteran IOC anti-doping enforcer Dick Pound told the Play the Game 2013 conference October 28.

At Play the Game 2013, taking place in Aarhus, Denmark 28-31 October, the anti-doping fight will be thoroughly discussed by some of the most knowledgeable specialists in the field.

The preliminary programme of Play the Game 2013 is at hand now. Early bird-deadline is postponed to give you time to consider your favourite Play the Game themes.

Brian Cookson, head of British Cycling, promises a full investigation into cycling’s doping past and a new and more active approach in the fight against doping should he succeed in ousting incumbent UCI president Pat McQuaid in September’s election.

New report from Dutch anti-doping commission has investigated the doping culture in Dutch cycling and argues that up to 95 % of Dutch cyclist used doping during the EPO-years in the late 1990s.

At UNESCO’s international conference of sports ministers in Berlin there was wide agreement on the need to strengthen the global action against match-fixing and other types of corruption in sport. But the Berlin Declaration does not commit any actors to concrete action.

What is sports journalism for? Are sports journalists a part of the fourth estate or merely a fan club? In this article from The Conversation, David Rowe discusses the role of sports journalism in the light of the number of recent hits to the reputation of sport.